ENGL 369: In the Beginning Was the Word, Narratives of Faith in Early America

Fall 2009

Jack Shuler

Reference Books

These sources are a good place to start your research and to gain background information.  In addition, they may contain excellent bibliographies.  Some examples are:

• Encyclopedia of women and religion in North America (3 vols.)    BL458 .E52 2006
• New historical atlas of religion in America    G1201.E4 N4 2001 Ref Atlas Case 2
• The Routledge historical atlas of religion in America    G1201.E4 C3 2000

Databases

Databases lead you to primarily journal articles on a particular topic although you may find references to books, book chapters, dissertations, and other types of information here. For additional books try CONSORT or OhioLINK. These sources give you a citation to an article and often an abstract (summary) of the contents of the article.
Once you have found a citation for an article you are interested in the next step is to determine whether or not the Denison Library subscribes to that journal.  Many online databases have links to the CONSORT catalog.  Others have access to the full-text of some articles.
If you need a copy of an article not available in Denison's periodical collection or online at Denison, use the Interlibrary Loan Form to request a copy.

• Archive of Americana includes tracts, pamphlets, and newspapers from 1639-1838
• MLA International Bibliography
• Religion and Philosophy Collection
• Humanities International Complete
• Arts & Humanities Citation Index
• JSTOR

Web sites

When using any "web" information, consider: accuracy, validity, comprehensiveness, author credibility, the publishing body, bias, etc. Below are a couple with information that might be useful for this class.

• Religion and the Founding of the American Republic is an online exhibit from the Library of Congress
• Divining America is a resource from the National Humanities Center